Ryan Crowley doesn’t often tune into Friday night football on the television.

As intense a competitor as there is in the AFL, Freo’s master tagger gets his adrenalin pumping just by watching a game, making ithard to fall asleep.

But last week, he couldn’t help but keep his eyes on the first preliminary final between Hawthorn and Geelong at the MCG.

The Hawks prevailed by five points in a pulsating game to qualify for the 2013 Toyota AFL Grand Final.

“I struggle to sleep after playing a game or even watching footy, and that game didn't help at all,” Crowley said.

“It was a really intense, exciting game.”

Crowley was also scouting possible opponents in the Grand Final in case Freo defeated the Sydney Swans the following night, which they did.

The man most think he’ll play on this Saturday is gun Hawk Sam Mitchell, who was best-on-ground in the prelim with 38 disposals.
“He was huge last Friday night,” Crowley said.

“It was one of the better finals games I've seen someone play.”

But Crowley said it wasn’t a given that he’d line up on the former Hawthorn skipper.

“They've got a whole plethora of midfielders that I could go to and he's one of them,” he said.

“I've played on Sam before and I look forward to the challenge if it is him.”

Crowley can’t wait to get out onto the MCG and represent the Fremantle Dockers in a grand final.

That he was so close to being delisted at the end of 2011 seems so long ago now.

“I dreamed of it, I hoped it would happen, but it seemed a long way off at that point in time,” he said.

“Eleven years in the making, it's pretty exciting.”


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